The European patent process.In Europe it is possible to obtain patents in some 40 countries using theservice of the EPO, the European Patent Office. Despite the name, the EPOdoes not issue usable patents, but instead decides if patent protection can be approved.It is the national patent office in each country in Europe that issuesthe real patent and to enable a smooth transfer between the EPO and each of the nationalpatent offices in Europe, the latter have promised to accept the decision of theEPO as long as the patent holder validates the granted patent application. In mostcountries validation has to be done within three months.

The basic parts of the validation are:

Translations of the patent text.

Submission of the translation to the respective national patent office.

Paying official fees to the respective national patent office.

There may be variations in requirements for all three parts from country to country.

To make it easier to understand what services Direct Validation specialises in, the patent application timeline below illustrates the period for which Direct Validation providescustomers with assistance:

Normally Direct Validation starts acting when you receive the “Intention to Grant”from the EPO and translation of the patent claims into the other two official languagesis necessary.

When the patent application is granted, the validation phase starts. Direct Validationcan help you with the whole process including: